PASADENA >> Southern California isn’t much for winter weather, but this February it will snow at the Rose Bowl Stadium.

Olympic gold medalist and professional snowboarder Shaun White announced Friday that he will bring the Air & Style sports, arts and music event to iconic stadium in 2015. It will mark the first time the event, which began in Europe in 1993, will be held in the U.S.

Air & Style will feature a 16-story ramp covered in man-made snow for the skiing and snowboarding competition. There will also be a skateboarding area, food trucks, local artists, fashion, three music stages — at which White promised his own band Bad Things will make an appearance — and a family area where children can learn to ski, snowboard and skateboard.

“It’s going to be one of those things where it’s kind of up to you to make your own experience at the event,” White said. “Everybody has been describing it as if it was a party I was throwing. There is going to be music, sports, food. There is going to be something you haven’t seen before. That’s been our underlying goal of the event to enhance people’s experience.”

White, who purchased a majority share of Air & Style this year, said the iconic Rose Bowl was the perfect location. The Rose Bowl event will be the third and final event of the tour, after Beijing and Austria.

White said he wants to involve locals and even talked about donating the snowboard, ski and skateboard ramps to area schools afterward.

“I love L.A., I live in L.A. I remember going to the Rose Bowl and seeing U2 play and it was just such a blowout massive event and … I was there for the weekend flea markets. I remember thinking this is such a great place, it’s so close and so fun,” White said. “So (for the event) we basically took this satellite view of Los Angeles and that was like right in the heart of it so we decided to try to pursue the Rose Bowl.”

Plus, he added, it will bring rare snow to Southern California.

“The idea is kind of bringing these things that happen in the mountains to the city,” White said. “It dawned on me that a lot of people in the area and in Pasadena haven’t experienced snow before. I can’t wait to see their reactions when we park this right in their front lawn.”

The Rose Bowl has hosted a multitude of large events this year, including seven major concerts, celebrating the recently completed costly renovation to the stadium. Officials are studying bringing a multi-day music festival to the stadium in the future. Stadium officials said they expect to earn $400,000 in revenue from the two-day Air & Style event.

“It’s going to be a fun event that will open the Rose Bowl of Pasadena up to a whole new audience,” Rose Bowl General Manager and CEO Darryl Dunn said. “We’ve never had snow at the Rose Bowl. … This is something you don’t see every day.”

But not everyone is happy to hear White and his snow are coming to town.

Rose Bowl neighbor Nina Chomsky, president of the Linda Vista-Annandale Neighborhood Association, said she was horrified to learn the event would feature man-made snow amid a serious drought.

“This is a insult to our situation in California with the drought and with the people in Pasadena who are going to be under more and more restrictions,” Chomsky said. “This is in-your-face Rose Bowl hubris. … I think the council and city staff should be embarrassed by this.”

Officials said the snow will be made from large ice blocks produced by Arctic Glacier ice company in Vernon. A total of 160,000 gallons of water will be used for the event, and the run-off will be used to irrigate the area around the stadium.

The stadium has long clashed with neighbors over the number of events held each year, traffic and noise issues. Officials have planned a community meeting to discuss these issues on Wednesday.

White said he has worked with the city to make the event fun for everyone.

“I don’t want to be a burden on the city. I want to make it a celebration of everybody coming down and experiencing and having some fun,” he said.

Air & Style takes place Feb. 21-22 and will be held inside the stadium and on the grounds surrounding it. Tickets are on sale for $139 to sit in the stands and $189 for the floor at Ticketmaster.com.